Personally, I think every day should be Earth Day or at least treated as such. Being aware of what we buy, what we dump, the resources we use and how it effects our planet.
I think so many of us forget about our trash once it hits the can. Out of site, out of mind. I know I’ve been guilty of this.
We are fortunate to live in an area with really great curbside recycling. And I’ve sought out options for a few other items that aren’t curbside recyclable such as #5 yogurt cups…which our county environmental center will take.
Other things we do in an effort to be eco-friendly are:
- buying in bulk at our local co-op
- shopping local which includes farmers markets, buying beef from a farmer and shopping at our small local hardware store whenever possible so we aren’t wasting gas driving to the big box store.
- turning junk into art
- reusing containers for storage
- patching clothing
- making blankets from old clothing
- buying used whenever possible
- buying safe, concentrated, plant derived cleaning products for our home as well as our health and beauty products (find out more)
- grouping errands into one day or just walking for the small stuff
- drying clothes outside during the summer
- doing without or figuring out how to use what we already have
I hope some of these have inspired you to your continue efforts help keep our planet
a safe place for all living creatures.
Have anymore tips for me?
I’d love to hear what you’re doing to be eco-friendly!!
PS…it’s my friend Elizabeth’s birthday today..stop by her blog and wish her a happy birthday!
Some things that I also do are:
I save bread bags, ziplock bags, grocery bags (when I get them) I re-use the bread and ziplocks for when I make bread and rolls and keep reusing them.
I don’t buy tupperware. I use cottage cheese, sour cream, and lunch meat containers as our tupperware.
We now have our own garden. I re-use alot of items I use to throw in the trash now as fertilizer for the garden. (banana peels, egg shells, used coffee grounds, orange peels and the like)
We have a “three shower” rule with towels. Unless it gets really dirty you have to use it three times before it can go in the dirty wash.
I don’t have the ability to hang stuff on the line like you do up north because of the heat and pollen down here but I do try to hang alot of stuff from the shower rod if I can versus drying in the dryer.
I too use (the same stuff as you) for cleaning that is all natural, plant derived. It is all I have in my house. Not only is it better, safer and healthier for us to not be breathing in all those chemicals but also a mop bucket full of chemicals isn’t going to get washed down the drain or toilet thus getting into our water system.
I collect rain water (when we actually have rain, which we haven’t for WEEKS) and use it for watering my houseplants and garden plants.
And last, I save the water from cooking vegetables, potatoes, noodles, etc. in jars in my fridge versus throwing it down the drain. Potatoe and noodle water is great for making gravy. Veggi water is perfect to have for soup stock, when cooking a chicken or turkey in the oven, and stew/spaghetti sauce etc. Not only is it conserving the water, but also adds a nice flavor to your chicken/turkey/beef when you roast it.
REcycle, buy locally, avoid styrofoam, reuse plastic grocery bags as packing material when mailing out boxes(haven’t quite got to the point of using my own bags at the grocery since I can use their bags for free for packing!), compost,and the horses donate to our manure pile!!
Happy Earth day and Easter!!!
i make my own all purpose cleaner with vinegar, borax, hot water and a drop of palmolive…i used a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of baking soda and salt to scrub my sinks…i put it in a parmesean shaker…i sprinkle it on and add palmolive to make a paste…this also works well on gardening hands…borax is natural and has many uses…my glass cleaner is rubbing alcohol, vinegar and a drop of palmolive..all of these recipes came from the women’s cancer resource group…i met these ladies at the green expo at the state fair grounds…have you been to that? it’s fantastic and i believe it is thisweekend of coming up very soon…happy weekend to you, halle
Wonderful post for Earth day which you are right should be every day. I do most of those things listed already. I have also started a recycling program at the church and encouraged the children in the after school program to recycle. It has carried over to the school and is like a domino effect. Children do what they see. Start them young.
I KNOW I am late getting here but I’m here now after being off the computer for two days. Friday I spent with Kathy, Sally, and Dana, and Saturday I spent with Billie visiting, then the rest of the day with the people who will be painting my house this week. They scraped and power washed it yesterday while I tried to help out a bit.
Thanks for wishing me a happy birthday on Friday. And thank you SO much for the gift you sent. I opened it this morning, because I didn’t have time yesterday to do it. Thank you for the Citra-solve and tea, among other things. How sweet of you. Honest!
I buy second-hand whenever possible. I have managed to build an entire new wardrobe from chsrity shops and car boot sales. We reuse all garden pots, etc in the garden for seedlings. We also use toilet paper rolls for seedlings. We compost whatever we can and the chickens get most kitchen scraps. Old nylons make great straps for holding trellises together. I reuse as much fabric stuff as Ican for other projects. clothes and shoes that are no longer fit to wear go to the local recycle center to either be sold on to other countries or are shredded and made into new fabrics, etc. We use reuseable grocery bags, but if I happen to have a platic carrier bag, it goes to the local charity shop for them to reuse.
P.S. The Eye is out over the Thames River. It was good, if a little scary!